Page:History and characteristics of Bishop Auckland.djvu/199

 172 HISTORY OF BISHOP AUCKLAND. the hands of some hungry little urchin — as it frequently did — and who, on investigation, was invariably found to bear no very distant relationship to the old woman who carried the child It was customary, too, when a child was first taken into a neighbour's house, for that neigh- bour to give it, on leaving, three things. These usually consisted of an egg, a piece of salt and bread, and in some instances a piece of money. The egg was supposed to have been adopted from its possessing the germ of life, and as being emblematical of immortality. Salt and cakes are said to have been used in religious rites by the ancients, both Egyptians and Jews : " And if thou bring an oblation of a meat-offering baken in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour." — Leviticus iL, 4th verse. "With all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt'' — Ibid, p. 13. The origin of eating fried peas, or carlings, as they are called, on the fifth Sunday in Lent, or, as it is termed in this neighbourhood, "Carling Sunday," seems to be wrapped in complete obscurity, and many different opinions have been hazarded as to its meaning. This particular Sunday is called in some old almanacks " Carle Sunday," from which, no doubt, the word carling is derived ; but why it is so called, neither Bourne nor Brand, nor any of the writers on those subjects, seem to throw any light Brand thinks the custom is derived from some of the funeral rites of heathen Rome. Another antiquarian says it had its rise from the disciples plucking the ears of com, and another says it is in conunemoration of the children of Israel being fed on manna in the Wildemesa Local tradition, however, gives another and a more probable origin to this old and still prevailing custom. It is stated that a famine was raging in the town and neighbourhood of Newcastle, and that a ship laden with peas arrived just in time to stop its ravages ; and that the custom was perpetuated in commemoration of that event This exjdanation seems to bear some degree of probability, as the custom is only known and practised in two or three northern counties. Another old northern custom, bearing some resemblance to the feast of carlings, but little known now-a-days, was very popular in Auckland about half a century ago, viz., " A Pea Scadding." Longstaffe, in his "Annals of Darlington," quotes from the "Entertaining Repository" the following epistle from a Devonshire man, bi which the writer graphically describes the scene he witnessed at " A Pea Scadding" in that town. These feasts were generally held at the principal inns and hostelries — not on any particular day, but usually about harvest time — and the guests were there by invitation : — When peas begin to change their colour, And some are green, and some are yellow, » « « « Tou see a big — a waling pot, Well crammed with peas — all smoking hot ; Peas — swads and all • « • « « Swift to the purport of my story, To sing, O DARLINGTON, thy Glory. The peas at length being done enough, That is, some tender, numbers tough. Into a Dish of course they pour 'em, While all stand ready to devour 'em ; And 'bout the centre of the dish Bound which these amorous gluttons fish. Two saucers commonly are plac'd. And one of them with Butter's grac'd. The other doth some salt contain, When all fall too with might and main. First into those they dip their swads Then draw them through their filthy gabs, When Peas and Mauks all sink together, One aenres to qualify the other. Digitized by Google